If I Were A Little Frog

What a blast we had putting this one together. This simple unison tune was easy to learn and, as you will hear, the kids really put their hearts into it. You will also hear rhythm section, woodwinds, tuba, timpani, percussion, and, of course, Boomwhackers®.

The melody stems from the old song, "The Noble Duke Of York," but that's where any similarity ends. The lyrics are written using a limerick approach. Although a slight deviation from the traditional limerick formula was used, the style is clearly recognizable.

There is an interesting history surrounding the development of limericks. With an Irish heritage, the limerick form hit the scene with Edward Lear's Book Of Nonsense written in 1845. It seems they generally begin with "There once was a _____ from _____," and use a rhyming pattern of AABBA. You might want your kids to take a crack at writing some of their own limericks. Careful though, it's easy to get carried away.

Hand out the Boomwhackers® to some and any other percussion instruments or noise makers you have in your classroom to the rest. The song basically plays through three times. The group sings the first time, BWs play the second time, and both singers and BWs join together the third time. On verses two and three, have the kids say "ribbit, ribbit" on the X notes as well as hit their percussion instruments in the same spots if they have one.

At the outro (and beyond, as you wish), it's time to create a "bog" with kids ribbitting and Boomwhackers® boomwhacking at will. We left the frog sounds on the instrumental track mix to undergird the effort. By the way, the frog sounds in the intro and outro/ending are made with hollowed out wooden frogs with ridges carved on their backs and played like a guiro. They're called Vietnamese wooden frogs and are available through Music K-8 MARKETPLACE at MusicK8.com